The time between the end of the First World War in 1918 and the stock market crash in 1929 has traditionally been considered an interregnum in American Music: before it, American music and musical culture largely reflected that of Europe, and after it, America found its voice in the distinctive compositions of Aaron Copland, Roy Harris and others. An examination of periodical writings on music from that time, however, reveals that this period marked not a state of anticipation but the real beginning of modern American music, of composition of international significance, and of distinctive styles of American composition. It was a period when traditionalism, modernism and jazz-influenced composition were each passionately defended and condemned not only in the music journals but in the pages of most of the general intellectual magazines.